History & Economics
Background

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  1. PDF Version Word Version De Moneta, Nicholas Oresme, 1484. Translated from Latin by Charles Johnson — Classic treatise on money and coinage.
  2.  The True Picture of an Ill Practiser of the Law, Anonymous (1703) — Corrupt lawyers were also a problem in England in the 18th century.
  3.  Cato (A Tragedy in Five Acts), Joseph Addison (prem. 1713) — Play about Cato the Younger, which inspired the Founders, especially George Washington.
  4.  Selections from Cato's Letters, John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon (1720-23) — English newspaper articles advocating Whig principles, which much influenced the American colonists.
  5.  Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline, Charles Montesquieu (~1734) — Historical analysis that laid the basis for his Spirit of Laws and Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
  6.  Rules of Decent Behavior, George Washington (~1745) — Short book on how to behvave in polite company.
  7.   A Caveat Against Injustice, or, An Inquiry into the Evils of a Fluctuating Medium of Exchange, Roger Sherman (1752) — By the author of the Tender Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
  8.  Selected Political Writings of Voltaire, (~1764) — Includes The Philosophy of History and A Treatise on Toleration.
  9.  Selected Articles from the Encyclopedia Britannica, First Edition (1768-1771) — Includes Commerce and parts of Law.
  10.   An Essay on the Principle of Population, Thomas Robert Malthus (1798) — Population growth limited by virtue and vice.
  11. W On Democracy in America, Alexis de Toqueville (1835, 1840) — Discusses the society that makes republican government work and how it is shaped by that form of government.
  12.   Man the Reformer, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1841).
  13.   The Moral Equivalent of War, William James (1910) — Seeks solution to problem of how to sustain political unity and civic virtue without war or a credible threat.
  14. HTML Version or Menu Text Version Who was the first president of the United States? The first eight?

See also
Constitutional History & Commentary
Constitutionalism
Liberty Library of Constitutional Classics.

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Original date: 2003/1/4 —